Final Fantasy Journey
by DWarrior000
Summary: This story is about a group of teens/young adults who, after going to an academy for adventurers, are chosen by some stroke of luck to be the next warriors of light. They must stop Chao, God of Discord, from wreaking havoc on the world they live in.
1. Chapter 1

FF: Journey

Prologue

The bustling city of Corneria is a fine city. Its in habitants come from all corners of the world. Today however the streets were especially crowded. Considering the

what day it was nobody was making a big fuss about it. After all it was the day

in which Destiny Academy was receiving a new batch of students to start out its new school year.

Destiny Academy is a school where students from all over come in order to

further their studies in their specific fields of expertise. Each student was classified

into one of either six groups depending on their studies and other special conditions.

A warrior was a student who specialized in physical combat using all sorts of weapons.

A thief was a student who focused on indirect combat and stealing things from their opponent and using it against them.

A black mage was a student who studied the black arts and all its destructive secrets.

A white mage was a student who practiced the holy arts. A red mage was a student who rather than focusing on one specific

subject they balance between direct combat and both magical arts, but they are never as good as the others.

The type of student is a monk who uses nothing but physical unarmed combat.

Students of all the different groups were walking through the school's front gates eager to learn from such powerful masters who awaited them.

One student, a 17 year old boy with short, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a blue sleeveless Gi and no belt, however just stood on the roof of a shop looking out at the crowd. As he waited atop this building he could feel the wind blowing against him and through his hair. These

winds of change were greeting him to his new life as he grinned and announced to

himself, "I'm finally here."

Ch 1

The mob of students died down and the boy jumped off the shop surprising the owner and all its customers. He proceeded through the gates, walked through the court yard, and entered the main building. Looking around he noticed a table with a middle-aged man with an orange beard, sleeveless armor, a helm with some more orange hair coming out the back, muscles, and a giant axe in the middle, and old geezer of a man, who was bald with white hair on the sides, a short, sharp pointed beard, sun glasses and a dark green kung-fu uniform with a gold dragon going from one sleeve to another, on the left, and a young, blonde, adult female wearing a white robe which made it impossible to tell her cup size on the right. The boy approached the table. "Name and acceptance letter," the middle-aged man said as he held out his hand.

The boy reached into his Gi and pulled out a letter. "My name is Alan Vaines." As the middle-aged man grabbed the letter he examined the outside and tore it up. Alan dropped his mouth in shock. "You didn't even read it."

"I don't have to."

"But all the work I had to do to get that."

The middle-aged man flipped through a stack of papers until he found the one he wanted. "Aw so your a monk. And here I was hoping I'd get such a strapping young lad for my lessons."

"So you're the one of the people I was told to watch for." They turned to the old man. "I'm Issui and I'll be your teacher while you're at this school." He pointed toward at the map in front of him to an area labeled "Dojo."

Alan immediately recognized the name "So you're going to be my sensei. Well I hope you don't break me."

"Don't worry. A frail, old man such as myself doesn't have as much vigor as you young ones."

Alan turned to the female. "Let me guess, you're in charge of dorm assignment."  
"Why yes I am. I'm the white arts teacher and nurse Ms. Ginger. I'll be seeing you a lot through out the year. Let's see... you'll be in tower three, room 343."

Scared at what she said he picked up a map along with all the other papers and headed out. He was now in the courtyard where students and teachers were talking whether it was between old friends or new acquaintances. While Alan was walking he was also reading some of his papers which included orientation, class information, and dorm rules. He then casually side stepped and held out his hand. Immediately following those actions a young, rogue-ish looking girl the same age as Alan flew through the air only to be caught by her right wrist. Alan held her up, "Seriously, Do you have to do this every time we see each other?"

The rogue-ish girl replied, "Yes."

"You can't just walk up to me say, 'Long time no see.' and give me a hug."

"If you put me down I would." Alan let go, she hugged him briefly. "It's been a while huh Alan."

"Well, Chrissie, it has been a year but who's counting."

"I gotta go and check out my dorm. See you during lunch." She yelled as he waved his little thief friend off.

As soon as she was gone a red mage and warrior walked up to Alan. The warrior was the first to speak, "Excuse me but do you know where tower three is? My roommate has seemed to have gotten us lost several times looking for it."

"What are you talking about! I was so close to getting us there," the red mage replied angrily.

"I doubt they would make us live in an alchemy lab, a locker room, or a storage room."

"Sure I know where it is, in fact I was assigned there too," Alan got his word in.

"Great! By the way I'm Scott," the warrior introduced himself. "And this is my roommate Kit."

"Hi, my names Alan." Alan leaned over to Scott to whisper, "I feel sorry for you." They both looked at Kit.

They finally reached the dorm. "Thanks for the help. Hope to see you around," Scott said as he and Kit walked away to find their room.

Alan walked in to see a wide variety of students standing around talking. He muttered to himself, "I wonder who my roommate is?" He walked up the stairs to the fifth floor and looked around. There were a total of eight rooms per floor so it was safe to assume that his room was in the middle of the hallway. He walked reading the numbers on the door till he found 343. Alan turned the knob to the door only to find that it was locked. He reached into his bag and pulled out his key, unlocked the door, and opened it. In the room was a black mage who was shorter than Alan, wearing a blue robe and yellow hat, short cut hair, and that black face thing that keeps you from seeing any other facial feature. The black mage was unpacking on the right bed so Alan just walked up to the left one and threw his stuff onto it. "Hello I'm Alan your roommate."

The black mage continued to unpack silently. All Alan could see as his roommate was unpacking were a bunch of books, more robes, and several posters with strange symbols on them. While Alan was trying to figure this person out he was interrupted by a knock at the door. Alan walked over to the door, opened it, and there was a blonde white mage wearing a traditional white mage robe standing there. Though it was a small room Alan's roommate couldn't hear the anything that was going on. "I'm Katelyn. I'm one of you neighbors from across the hall," She held up her hand to point out that her room was the one across from Alan's. "I decided that I should introduce myself to my neighbors so that I could get to know everyone."

"My name is Alan and that over there is my roommate. He hasn't told me his name yet. I'm pretty sure he's just shy though."

"Well if you need anything just knock on my door and I'd be glad to help."

"Thank you. See you around." Alan closed the door and turned around to go back to his bed. At the corner of his eye he noticed something fall from his roommate's bed. Without thinking he picked it up quickly and held it in front of him and said, "Here you dropped your bra..." The black mage looked over and they both froze. The black mage began to blush. "You're a girl!" The next thing Alan could recall was being blasted by a fire spell. He flew into the door knocking it off its hinges only to continue to fly with the door and finally hitting the door across the hall. Katelyn opened her door to see Alan under her door and the black mage ran out.

"Sorry I was just nervous and had a panic attack," She tried to explain but Alan was out.

Several people who lived on that floor helped get the door off him. The Ms. Ginger walked down the hallway, "That was sooner than I expected." The nurse gave him a once over and she was surprised. "It looks like you were already treated."

Alan pointed to Katelyn, "I was told that she healed me."

"I had to. I couldn't just watch him sit there in pain." Katelyn explained.

"At least you're up again." Ms. Ginger gave him a pat on the back which made him tense up in agony. "Well not all rookies can get it all done on the first time."


	2. Chapter 2

FF: Journey

Ch 2

It was the first day of lessons and a lot of students were up and getting ready for said lessons. Alan was still sleeping after exciting afternoon. His roommate just got back from some early morning errand. Seeing as Alan was still asleep she decided to take a shower. As it turned out Alan's roommate was named Bridgette. She has problems when it comes to embarassing moments. Kind of like blasting main characters through doors. She took off her hat, switched off the whole black head thing (yes the black head thing is optional), and slid her robe off. Just as the robe hit the floor a loud persistant ringing came about. This bell, fortunately for Alan, was used to make sure all the students got up in time to get ready for class. Unforunately for Bridgette, who was not petrified with a mixture of fear and embarassment, this bell served it's purpose and woke Alan up. He stretched and yawned without a single ache or pain which surprised him considering what happened to him yesterday. Leaning over he rubbed his eyelids to clean them off. Finally he looked over to see Bridgette in her underwear. His eyes opened wide, his face blushed all over to match hers, and he couldn't think of what to say. She screamed and hit him with, not a fire spell, but this time a lightning spell.

She threw her robe back on, lept over to Alan, and proceeded to say, "Not again!" Bridgette ran over to Katelyn's room knocking on the door. Katelyn openned the door already dressed and ready for the day. "Quick I accidentally hit Alan with a lightning spell."

"Oh no!" The girls ran back over and Katelyn raised her hands over Alan which began to eminate with a white glow. All of Alan's burn marks began to disappear and his muscles loosened.

Katelyn's hands returned to normal. Alan got up and followed up with, "Sorry for the glance but I gotta get ready." He rushed to the bathroom with his clothes for the day.

"Why'd you zap him this time?"

"He saw me in my underwear." She blushed again.

Katelyn stared at her. "I feel a recurring pattern coming one here."

Alan jetted out the door. "See you later." Katelyn walked out the room. Bridgette realized she had to hurry up and get ready to so she went into the bathroom.

Alan ran into the dojo seeing several other people wearing different style Gi's like he was. Everyone was lining up so Alan just joined them. Issui-sensei walked down examining each student. He returned to the head seat of the room. "You may be seated." Everyone got in a tradition Japanese sitting position. "Everyone of you holds the potential to be the most powerful of this academy's students. In order to compensate for your lack of weapons you'll need to train harder than anyone else. For all those who are in here by choice, no offense but, you will most likely need to train twice as hard as the others in order to stay in the same league."

"What do you mean 'by choice?' Are you saying that there are students who have to be monks," One student said, clearly taking Issui's last statement as an insult.

"Well if you didn't already know then I guess I should explain." Issui stood up and used his cane to tap two sections of the wall behind him. Two scrolls rolled down each with a human drawn on them. One had a white fire in its stomach, while the other had just a green orb. "In this world people are either born with magic, this white flame, or chakra, this green orb. Those who are born with magic can perform spells which are necessary for all classes except monks. People with chakra can only be monks because it doesn't require magic. Most of the great monks are those who learned to control their chakra and make it an extension of their body. The other ones had to take decades to do the same thing with their magic because it is so hard to control. The reason the other classes don't have any problems with magic is because they aren't controlling it but, just invoking its power."

The student looked around and easily noticed who said people could only use chakra because they were the only ones who weren't looking around in confusion. "My apologies Issui-sensei."

"No problem," He said making sure none of the others had questions. "Since today is the first day two groups from the different classes are chosen to have one of their students fight one another. This event is used to kick off the year and pump the students up for the rest of it. Today's lucky groups are the warriors and us."

The students grew eager for each one except for Alan and a few others wanted to be selected. One of the eager students asked, "How will you decide who represents us."

"I'm glad you asked. Look outside and I'll show you." He pointed at a bunch of white and green training dummies sticking out of the ground and continued, "I want each student with chakra to punch a green dummy and each student with magic to punch a white dummy. All students are to punch their dummies and I'll draw my results from that."

All the students stood up and walked next to the appropriate dummies. They all stretched and got ready. Everyone punched their dummies at the same time without being told. All the white dummies remained intact. All but one of the green dummies broke. The one that didn't break was Alan's. He looked around and let out an, "Ah crap."

Issui-sensei said, "So we have a lucky winner on the first try."

"He didn't even break his dummy." The students began to talk between each other.

"The point wasn't to see who could punch their way through wood but, to see who had the most control. The white dummies would break as soon as they are touched by magic and judging by the results none of you could actually control yours. The green ones break when they are touched by chakra. Since chakra is easy to control, we made it so that they would forcefully draw it out. Alan was the only one with enough control to keep his chakra in check. Some of you might not understand but this class is all about control and not physical training. So far Alan has shown the most. So Alan what is your martial arts?"

"Art of the Flowing Fist," Alan replied.

"Oh a wind style, how exhilarating." A hawk with a cylindrical container suddenly flew into the dojo and landed on Issui's shoulder. This didn't surprise him in the least. He reached into the container to pull out a paper and examined the contents. He jotted something down, returned it to it's container, and sent the messenger hawk off.

"Is that the form that tells them I'm the contestant."

"Yes it is. It already had your opponents name too."

"Who is it."

"Scott Valens." This shocked Alan seeing that he had met him yesterday. He knew this could only mean one thing.

"Later today I'll stop by your room and guide you to the arena's contestant entrance. You're all dismissed."

Everyone headed for the exit talking about what they were expecting for the battle. Alan went straight to his room to get some rest. His class may not have been exhausting but his wake up call was. He climbed to stairs of the tower, got to his room, went in, and just looked around. He heard the shower going off and saw Bridgette's robe on her bed so in order to avoid another accident he took the robe and hung it next to the bathroom door. Alan just laid in his bed and started to think. The shower turned off and after a couple minutes the door opened. "Your robe is next to the door," Alan said before it opened all the way.

"Thank you." She reached out, grabbed her robe, and emerged fully dressed except for her hat which was still on the bed. Bridgette put the hat on and as soon as she did the black face came on. They both sat there in silence, Alan still in his thought and Bridgette not knowing what to say. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just how my first two days here have been going. First I get to a school with a bunch of people I don't know, then I get blasted through a door by you, after that I get zapped by you, during class I was chosen to be in the first school brawl, and I was told it was someone whom I met."

Bridgette reflected on those things trying to put herself in his shoes. He didn't give a definitive tone as to what he thought of those things. Seeing as he talked about what she did to him she came to the only conclusion she could. "The first two days here have been a lot for everyone. Let's hope that it gets better as the year goes by." She tried to cheer him up thinking it was the least she could do after what she had done to him.

He got up, "Yeah you're right. So far this school has been great."

"What?" This last statement had caught her off guard.

"This place has been more surprising and exciting then I thought it would be. If it keeps up then I'm sure everyone will have a good time just like me."

There was a knock at the door. Bridgette got it and let the visitors in. It was Chrissie, and Katelyn who was being very closely followed by Kit. Chrissie began, "I heard about your lucky break. Too bad I didn't get picked for any of the fun."

"Well I would drop out but you're not in the monk class and I am excited about fighting Scott."

Kit joined in the conversation, "Scott is excited too. He said he could tell you were a good fighter from the fire in your eyes but, I don't remember your eyes being on fire when we met."

Alan got up seeming even more enthusiastic. "Even he knows this is going to be a good match."

"By the way Alan who is this cute white mage."

Neither Kit nor anyone else would have known the white hot rage that he summoned. His face was soon introduced to Katelyn's hammer after he said that. She just turned around and changed from her angry, rage filled face to a smile. "We just stopped by to wish you luck and pick up Bridgette so we could all get seats together. Also I wanted to make sure she didn't blow you through a wall. It does get annoying when I have to heal you constantly." They all began to leave except Bridgette.

She walked over to her dresser and pulled out a potion from the top drawer. "Here drink this."

"What is it?"

"Just drink it."

Alan chugged it and all it's otherworldly flavor. He stuck out his tongue to let it air out. "What is this stuff?"

"It's a paralyze heal. I figured you could use one after this morning. How do you feel?"

"I feel as good as new. Thank you." The stiffness in his muscles was gone.

"I gotta catch up with them. See ya." Alan just waved back.

"So it looks like I don't have to do anything about your little problem." Alan recognized the voice to be Issui's and he was right to assume it as he saw his sensei walk in the room.

"You knew about my stiffness?"

"I noticed it when you walked in class."

"Why didn't you cure me in class?"

"It would have just went away after a night's rest, but since you were picked to be in the Start of the Year Fight, I figured I'd have to fix it myself. Luckily that black mage girl was your roommate."

"Well it was her fault in the first place."

"Get used to it after all room assignment lasts the entire time your in school. Make sure you take care of her."

"What does that mean?" Alan grew a puzzling look on his face.

"You'll know in due time. Now you have match so let's get going."

"Alright." Alan thought to himself as they were leaving the room. 'This is going to be a great year.'

Arriving at the arena door Alan saw how huge it was towering 50 ft tall. What amazed more than the size was the weight. He couldn't open the door with all his strength. "Here let me do it before you're too tired to fight." Issui went up to the door and with one click of his wrist pushed it open about half way.

"What is the deal with that door?"

"It is meant to keep the monsters from escaping when we catch them."

"There's something that requires a door that heavy?"

"Only the senior level monsters." They walked down the enlarged hallway and stopped at a wood door on the side. "Are there any weapons you would prefer?"

"I don't use any." The door opened and out came Scott holding two swords.

He walked down the hallway informing Alan. "Too bad they only have basic equipment. Everything in there is only made of copper."

Alan waited for Scott to take the corner. "Let's continue." Issui took the lead and they made the other turn in order to emerge from the opposing side.

As Alan approached the east gate the announcer could be heard making introductions. Issui had already parted ways with him after the path became pretty apparent. He heard his name and walked out to be welcomed by the cheering of the crowd. The stands were full all except for three seats and Scott was already in the arena. Alan got close to Scott and decided to liven the tension. "So who do you think is the last empty seat?"

"You already know my answer. Kit better not mess with anything."

"Come on it's not like he has a history of doing this."

"Unfortunately he does and the sadder part is I know about it."

They both backed up a little and got into stance. Following their actions was the announcer shouting "BEGIN!"

They dashed at each-other. Scott was holding the sword in his left hand in the air and the one in his right at his left side facing the other direction with his right arm bent across his chest. Alan did a regular run with his fists unclenched. As they drew close Alan jumped kicking Scott's right elbow preventing his horizontal slash and as Scott brought down the other sword in one motion Alan grabbed Scott's wrist with his left hand which made him let go of the sword followed by Alan grabbing it and throwing it behind himself with enough force to drive it into the ground.

Scott jumped back. "Not bad. That was all one solid movement."

"If I'm going to fight unarmed then disarming is very important." Alan charged again.

"Since you dropped me down to one sword your chances have just been cut in half." Scott adopted a new stance. Alan could sense a significant increase in Scott's power. As Alan drew closer the anticipation of the crowd continued to build. Both of them began to make some motions when the ground shook and broke their focus.

The northern gate which was the same size as the participant doors rose up unexpectedly catching everyone including the teachers off guard. Two transparent lights, one green and the other yellow, formed a dome shaped barrier over the arena blocking off the contestant area from the spectators. Issui and the middle-aged teacher both tried to break it by throwing a few punches at it and Ms. Ginger attempted a spell but nothing worked. "It appears we have our first surprise of the year unless you had something to do with this MacCoel," Issui said to the middle-aged man as the teachers contemplated the situation.

"If it was me you would of heard of it by now. At least it's only a monster. They'll be... By the great Moradin!" The other teachers saw the shock of horror on MacCoel's face as they joined him in looking to see a behemoth emerge from the gate. "We have to hurry or they'll die."

Alan looked at Scott and back at the behemoth. "I guess this is a part of the fight too."

"I'm pretty sure that considering the teachers tried to brake the over head barrier that this is not apart of the fight."

"Then you and me can get some brownie points by doing some extra work." Alan began to walk toward it. Scott found himself convinced and shortly followed him.

"Run, lads! Run!" MacCoel shouted but found the words useless due to the barrier.

Issui got into a stance and started making some movements."Give me a minute and I'll surely deal with this barrier."

The behemoth looked around the arena taking in the vast difference in space compared to its cell. Its focus finally shifted toward Alan and Scott. A growl emerged to accept their challenge.

Alan charged the beast with his left fist readied not knowing what to expect. As Alan approached the behemoth it raised its left and brought it down onto Alan's location. Being too fast for him to dodge Alan met its paw with his fist. At the collision Alan felt a mass of pain from his arm as both his hand and fore arm broke under the great pressure. The paw continued til it slammed Alan to the ground.

When it removed it's paw Alan was still conscious. He could now see the strength of the behemoth. This made him feel like a raft against a tsunami. He knew he could not survive it with his current strength let alone defeat it. The behemoth swiped with it's left paw to deal a finishing blow to Alan.

Scott used everything he had to block the paw with a horizontal slash and he had the luxury of a sword to absorb most of the initial force. "Can you get up?" Scott asked.

"Barely..." Alan rose to his feet with his arm limp due to the shock of the pain. "We have to run or this thing will devour us like a tidal wave."

"Kind of like that one?" Scott hinted toward a random wave of water coming from the behemoth's right side. They both jumped out of the way of the swipe and proceeded to run as the wave swept up the creature and slammed it against the wall.

"I honestly don't know what to say."

A familiar voice came from the monster gate. "How about 'Thank you.'" Kit walked out of the gate with a rapier in his right hand. "I would have shown up sooner but this thing sure is a hard hitter."

Seeing the tear in Kit's clothing, "Well now that you're here our chances increased by a fraction."

"We'll comment on this later now let's focus," Scott said with a blaze of confidence.

The behemoth started to charge them. The three boys prepared themselves. Alan started by running toward it. The beast readied a swing but Alan jumped kneeing it in the chin "Sudden Updraft!"

Kit ran under it cutting it's limbs. As he emerged from the other side he just stopped, whipped his rapier toward the ground and recited, "Blizzard!" All the water from the tidal wave swirled around the behemoth and froze along it's limbs.

Scott lowered his sword into a sheathed position at the waist tilting it so that the tip was in his shadow. "Phantom Strike!" He slashed the sword diagonally and an invisible force shot from the sword at the beast. Alan saw a strange shadow on the ground heading their way and ducked. The behemoth was struck by the force leaving a cut across it's chest.

Immediately after receiving the strike the behemoth started to rampage breaking free of the ice. The first thing it did was raise and stomp it's paw on Alan. When Kit started to rush to him he was batted away by the tail and sent crashing into the wall knocking him out. Starting up another charge, too fast for Scott to react in time it pierced his right shoulder with it's horn. With the pain from the newly acquired hole Scott passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

FF: Journey

Ch 3

Scott awoke slowly in the infirmary. He grabbed his head with his left hand. "I'm alive?"

A familiar voice off to the side greeted him. "Aw now I can't have his share of the food."

"I see they gave you the bed next to me." Scott turned his head right to see Kit just as he expected. However he was surprised to see Katelyn, Chrissie, and Bridgette. "Who are they?"

"The sneaky one is Chrissie, the black one is Bridgette, and the white one is mine," Kit told Scott which was immediately followed by Katelyn poking him in the chest causing him to wince in pain.

She looked back at Scott and redid the introductions, "I'm Katelyn, I live in the room across from Alan, she is Chrissie, one of Alan's old friends, and she is Bridgette, Alan's roommate." She introduced them in order from left to right.

Scott began, "Speaking of Alan I bet he's got the bed..." Scott stopped short when he turned his head to see the bed on his other side empty. "Where is he!" He suddenly got up trying to ignore the pain.

Katelyn pushed him back down onto the bed while Chrissie explained. "After the stands were evacuated the teachers were trying to break the barrier. The behemoth stabbed you in the right shoulder. It turned and fired a powerful meteor spell from it's mouth at Kit which was going to kill him but..."

"But?"

"But Alan got up and blocked it. Then the teachers broke the barrier and killed the behemoth. They grabbed you all and before we could catch up to them they were already gone. This is actually the first day we were able to see you guys. Clinic nurse told us you two would be OK and when we asked about Alan she told us that she didn't have any information on him."

An awkward silence filled the room considering there were six strangers in a room and the one that connected them all was missing. The silence was only broken by Kit. "So Scott... have you noticed how we aren't wrapped in any bandages?"

"Actually now that you mention it... what is the deal with this? I had a hole in my shoulder and there's no trace of it."

Chrissie added to the inquiry, "I asked about that and never got an answer. Also from the look of things it seems like not all of the infirmary staff is here."

"Mrs. Ginger hasn't been in class since the incident." Katelyn threw in.

Their ponderings were interrupted by the nurse on duty. "Since you both are awake and out of the danger zone you are free to leave." Scott and Kit got out of the beds and with the aid of the girls they left.

On their way back to the dorms they came across the dojo and saw Issui sweeping up the front. As they passed by Issui greeted them which they halted to exchange, "Good to see you two out of the hospital."

"We're glad to be out," Scott replied.

Issui turned his attention toward Bridgette. "Is there something you'd like to ask?"

Everyone, except for Katelyn, looked at her caught off guard by the proposal for her to speak and finally getting to hear her. "Do you know..." She trailed off thinking he might not have the answer.

Knowing exactly what she was going to ask, "Don't worry about Alan. When we started treatment on him, he was estimated to need a week of intensive healing so he should be out in another 2 days."

Scott processed the information. "You mean I've been out for 5 days."

"Oh you mean no one woke you up?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You were all healed on the second day. So you should have already been out."

"Holy crap! I unnecessarily missed 3 days of class." Scott started to worry.

Kit interrupted, "Quit you're bitching. Its not the end of the world."

"Oh, you don't know my teacher."

"I don't know about you but this guy seems pretty nice."

"What are you talking about?"

"Isn't this guy your teacher?"

"No. My teacher is MacCoel."

Kit thought about it for a minute. "You are boned."

Everyone said goodbye to Issui and they continued on their way. Making it back to their rooms the rest of the day was just used for rest. The Next two days almost instantly passed.

Bridgette woke up rubbing her eyes. She looked at Alan's bed and was surprised to see something was under the covers moving. She cautiously approached it and poked it with her staff. The covers were lifted from under as Alan emerged from them. "Is it morning already?"

"When did you get back? I was scared half to death that there was some strange person in here."

"Long story. All that I can tell you is that I haven't slept in a week."

Knowing not to push the subject any farther Bridgette steered away from it. "It's time to get ready for class."

"I'm already ready." Alan examined himself and he was already in day clothes, clean, and actually smelled kinda like a flower.

"It's time for me to get ready," she restated.

Alan laid back down and slid the covers back on. "You do that. I'm going back to sleep."

She walked over to their front door opening it and the next thing Alan knew he was thrown out still wrapped in the covers. Bridgette slammed the door shut. Alan thought for a minute. "Oh that's what you meant."

Later Alan made it to class. As he walked in everyone greeted him making him feel out of place considering he didn't know any of them. Issui finally walked in and everyone sat and drew their attention toward him. "I see we have our little star back."

"Star who?"

"You."

"Me? Why?"

Issui cheerfully answered,"You fought a behemoth and jumped in the way of it's meteor spell. Not only that but made even more amazing by the fact you lived."

"Well it was all really the medical staff."

"Exactly." There was a noticeable change in Issui's tone to seriousness. "If you hadn't been healed by them you would have died. All because you lacked the discipline to know when to run and the training to beat it. From now on until the school year is over you are going to stay after class for an extra four hours of lessons and training. You will also train with me during the holidays and weekends."

"What about Scott and Kit?"

"Those two are getting the same punishment as you from their own teachers."

The class continued as normal and when the rang everyone including Alan left. Alan met up with everyone in the courtyard. Kit, Scott, and Alan exchanged looks. The same feeling of sorrow swept over them all.

Chrissie started up the conversation, "I joined the event committee."

"Awesome I got a part time job at the infirmary," Katelyn added.

Bridgette threw in her two cents, "I'm in an art club."

The girls kept talking for a while. The guys just sat there thinking of all the free time taken from them and all the ruined plans that required said time.

Chrissie looked at them and asked, "What's wrong with you guys?"

Alan answered, "The three of us have to go to extra training after class and during holidays and weekends for the entire year."

"WHY GOD! WHY!" Kit screamed to the heavens on his knees thinking the punishment was unjust. Scott was just speechless.

"Well shouldn't you guys be there now." With that they all winced.

"Guys I got it." Kit started desperately. "We start running now and..." Kit stopped suddenly due to the change in Alan's and Scott's face. He looked behind himself and saw his teacher.

"Trying to escape huh?"

"No you got it all wrong." Kit pleaded as he was dragged away. This made Alan and Kit bolt to their classrooms to beg for forgiveness.

Katelyn just ignored what happened, "So Chrissie what's the biggest event for the school year."

"Some end of the year dance which follows some after year fight."

Editor's Note

Hey all you readers taking the time to read a side project of mine. Rather than writing about the happenings throughout the school year which were not my intentions I'm just gonna skip to the end of the school year.

Throughout the year everyone continued what seemed to be a routine schedule of lessons and extracurriculars. Relationships changed, people grew stronger, and Kit continued to get on Scott's nerve.

The final lessons of the year ended and as everyone left Alan continued to sit. Issui looked at him and told him, "Today we aren't going to have extra training. You can just go to your dorm and relax."

Alan did just that. Upon entering his room he greeted Bridgette, "I got today off so I'm back early."

"Oh, well then you can come with me to the fight."

"Okay." Before he could sit down she grabbed him by the arm and off they went.

They arrived at the audience gate and met up with Katelyn and Chrissie. "Hey you two," Katelyn started, "So Alan you're actually gonna watch it?"

"I don't really have anything else to do."

Bridgette elbowed him in the gut. "He needed to get out more so I brought him here."

Chrissie ended the small talk, "Let's just go get some good seats."

All four of them walked in grabbing some pretty good seats and waiting for the event for start. Two students, a warrior and a black mage, entered the arena. The announcer began, "It's been a good year with lots of excitement and fun. Today is the last day that you all will be here and we're going to celebrate with a fight and dance after wards. Without further delay we have these two students facing off against a monster today."

Just then the barrier appeared above the arena which was meant to protect the audience. Out of the monster gate came a floating, yellow fireball with arms, a mouth, and two eyes. "Look at what we have here ladies and gentlemen. A bomb." The warrior took out a mace and started to swing away at the bomb but couldn't land a hit due to it's incorporeal body. The mage started to look nervous. He casts a spell which made a small red circle filled with runes appear under the bomb. The bomb instantly blew up being hit by a fire spell.

The smoke created from the explosion quickly blasted out and retracted back to it's source. The bomb was still standing, in fact it was even sucking in all the smoke and growing bigger. Soon it started to look like it was at it's limit. Finally bursting making an even bigger explosion than the spell. When the smoke cleared the two students were on the ground unconscious. There were twelve fires all over the arena. Alan got up in anticipation. "What's wrong Alan?"

"That monster isn't dead yet." The fires around the arena started to float and each one became a new bomb. "Apparently that was a mother bomb. When it explodes it gives birth to new bombs depending on the force of the explosion."

Alan quickly ran over to the front of the audience stands. "If only Kit and Scott were here. I won't have enough energy to deal with these things if I break the barrier."

"We can handle it." Alan looked behind him to see the girls standing ready.

He raised his foot above the barrier focusing his chakra for this one hit. Alan brought his foot down axe kicking the barrier. It cracked from where his foot landed and shattered. Chrissie jumped in grabbing the two students and bringing them back over in what seemed like an impossible speed to Alan. Katelyn waved her rod around and while Bridgette did the same with her staff. First a dark yellow circle appeared where the barrier used to be and made a shell in the shape of a dome above the arena. A red circle appeared on the ground of the arena the same size as the other mages except it spun around growing to the size of the arena itself.

A huge explosion contained by the shell occurred. This made all the new bombs instantly explode. Alan was surprised at what they had just done. "Since when did you three get so good?"

"Well we thought that while you were getting extra training we should get some too in order to keep up with you."

Chrissie dropped the two students. "Well now that that's over we should get ready for the dance." Everyone just walked off with the purpose of meeting back up soon. Alan and Bridgette both got ready at the same time.

Bridgette used the bathroom and Alan had the rest of the room. Alan finished getting ready in no time since it was a simple tradition celebration gi. Bridgette emerged from the bathroom in her dress. She was wearing a silk deep true red dress with arm-less straps resting gently on her shoulders has her dress waves at her knees with a blue ribbon wrapped around her waist. Alan was jaw dropped.

"Come on let's go." She grabbed his arm and they left. Along the way they came across Kit and Katelyn walking there too. They group was walking in a pretty even line.

Kit and Alan leaned back and mouthed out a conversation starting with Kit. "How did you manage that?"

"I didn't do anything."

"You are lucky."

"I would assume this is a dream but I haven't gone through any walls today."

They stopped leaning back and made it to the dance hall. After entering there was a lot of greeting with all the people they met during the school year. A couple songs went by and couples danced. Alan took a break by the food table just standing against the wall.

"Would you get me some punch," Bridgette asked as she walked up next to him.

"No can do."

"Why not?"

"The punch was spiked with alcohol."

"Shouldn't we tell everyone?"

"I'm not since everyone's having a good time. Besides it's not like anything is getting blown up." An explosion was heard by everyone but no one cared. "Correction it's not like I'm blowing anything up."

Kit came walking up to the two drunk and laughing. "Guys, Scott just knocked over a wall."

"Then why was there a flash of light followed by an explosion," Alan inquired.

"Because I cast thunder on him which made him fall out the building."

"I'd rather not stay now." Alan began to leave.

Bridgette followed him and replied, "I'm with him."

They both got back to their room locking the door in case some people mistakes their room for theirs. Both laid back in their beds relaxing. Alan was facing against the wall. Bridgette sat up and started talking, "It's been a fun year."

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna miss this place?"

"Of course. If it wasn't for this school I wouldn't have become so strong and met so many people."

She closed her eyes. "So tomorrow is the last day we'll see each other?"

"It won't have to be if you don't want it." She opened her eyes and moved toward Alan's bed. His face turned with her hovering her face over his. They both closed in and kissed. This kiss was the first time their feelings connected. She knew that he wouldn't just let her go off on her own with out reason. Alan untied her ribbon and she allowed him to do so. The rest of their night couldn't have been any better.

The next morning Alan woke up with his arm around Bridgette and her resting on him. He nudged her softly saying, "Hey it's time to get up."

"Can't we stay here a while longer?"

"My teacher told me I had to see him today about something important and I still gotta pack."

"Fine." She pouted a little but let him get up.

Alan got into his regular gi and put everything he brought into his bag. "See you later." Alan finally made it to the dojo after saying so many goodbyes to people. "Sensei I'm hear for whatever it is you wanted."

"Welcome. Sit down."

Alan sat and asked, "What was it that you wanted to see me for?"

"Do you know why this academy was built?"

Alan answered accordingly. "To educate young adults in certain skills to make the world a better place."

"That's actually only half right."

"What's the other half?"

"Do you know about Chaos?" A very serious air enveloped the room.

"Are you talking about the god of discord?"

"Yes the very same."  
"What does he have to do with this academy?" Alan started to become very confused.

"Aside from educating we use this place to help us search for the right people."

Alan started to catch on. "People who can be Light Warriors."

"Exactly."

"But why would you need Light Warriors? They are only needed when... Chaos... You don't mean?"

"Yes I'm afraid the time has come for him to reappear and fulfill his duty as god of discord. That's why you and some others have been singled out this year. Each one of you has been appointed to a greater destiny than you know of and it's time to act."

Alan freaked out a little. "But how are we supposed to beat a god? Who are the rest of the warriors anyway?"

"Well it's your friends Scott, Kit, Chrissie, Katelyn and Bridgette. In order to beat him you have to relight the world crystals."

When Alan heard Bridgette's name he stopped freaking out and after a moment of thought. "Well I guess I have to do this."

"Just so you know we didn't just choose you based on your strength but also by what you have within..."

"Cut the cliché motivational."

"I get it." Issui handed Alan a sealed envelope. "This is a list of locations that will start your journey."

Alan stood up and bowed. "Thank you for what you've done for me." He proceeded to leave. Upon exiting the dojo Alan saw his friends grouped together.

"Well I guess we can get this saving the world thing started now," Scott said as he tossed Alan's bag toward him.

Alan caught it. Seeing everyone he thought to himself, 'God or not. Everything in our way is going down.'


	4. Chapter 4

FF: Journey

Ch 4

A couple days had gone by since they started their journey. "Are we there yet," Kit groaned.

Scott replied with frustration, "No." This had gone on every since they left.

"We're almost there," Alan said, "We should be able to see it just over this hill." Just as Alan finished they made it to the top of the hill. Everyone was speechless at the sight of the town covered in fire. They hurried to the city and looked for survivors but no one was left.

"Who could have done such a thing," Katelyn asked in terror.

Scott saw something move out of the corner of his eye. "Over there!" They rushed turning around a building to see a giant silver dragon slowly wondering around on its hind legs. Scott drew his swords and charged it shouting, "You will pay for this monster!" He swung his swords in a cross slash pattern at its leg only to see his swords have no affect on the dragon. The dragon turned and saw him.

"Thunder!" Kit pointed his rapier toward it and a bolt of lightning struck it on its cheek leaving no visible wound.

Bridgette waved her rod around for her own spell. "Fire!" The flames from the surrounding buildings shot forth covering the dragon until there was an explosion.

The smoke cleared and it was still standing uninjured. It announced, "It's been a long time old friends."

Kit was puzzled. "Are you talking about us because I don't know any dragons. Wait... Did he just talk?"

Chrissie approached it. "Why did you burn down this town?"

"I did no such thing."

"Who did?"

"That's none of my concern. I am here to meet the warriors of light as I was told I would."

"We are the warriors of light."

"You?" The dragon looked at everyone and ended it by staring at Kit. "I wonder why he stays in someone so weak."

"Who are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the summoned creatures inside of you all."

"The who?"

"Legendary creatures with great powers that side with the light in times of peril."

Scott joined in, "I heard of these. Each one has more power than any army. There are even some who are only exceeded by gods."

"Yes. I am one such creature. I am Bahamut the dragon king. I was told to come here and provide you six with some wisdom for your journey to save the world."

"If your here to tell us stuff then I guess you could start by telling us about the summoned creatures inside of us and why they are there," Katelyn suggested.

"Fine then. The reason behind why they reside in you is because all summoned creatures except for I cannot make use of our full power unless we have human vessels. Each one of you has been chosen for such a task. You little knight have Anima the dark emperor. The white female has Carbuncle the mystic sprite. The black female has Ifrit the ruler of the hell. The crafty female has the Magus Sisters the deceitful beauties. You red mage have Leviathan the storm serpent." After glancing at Alan he stopped.

Alan asked, "What about me?"

"It is not my place to say."

"How come?"

"It was a request."

"Okay, I guess." Alan was still a bit confused.

"With that I shall be on my way."

Kit asked, "Before you go, Can I ride you?"

Bahamut spread his wings and started to flap. "No." Soon he was off. The party had to brace them selves because of the wind that picked up due to his launch. Bahamut thought to himself, 'It is time for you to experience your first battle in this war. I can only feel sorry that you have become involved at such a young age. Except for that red mage.'

The party looked around and saw that all the flames were out. "So I finally found you." A human figure walked out from one of the buildings wearing a red robe that hid his entire body stopping just below his eyes. From what they could see his skin was a fleshy pink color, he had horns in his forehead, and white spiky hair.

"Who are you?" Kit asked.

"I am Sean. I have come here to destroy you."

Scott pointed his swords toward Sean. "Bring it."

One of Sean's arm came out of his robe revealing a pale yellow jump suit with sleeves too long for his arm which caused them to flap over when he held his arms up. He snapped his fingers and everyone including himself had a magical circle appear below them. "To be honest I'm not going to fight you. You all will have to fight my Seeds of Sin." He threw six seeds on the ground.

The first one to sprout became this hideous fat slop of a monster that drooled. "Who do I get to eat?"

"Gluttony you will deal with the white girl in the white." Sean snapped his fingers and Katelyn's circle disappeared.

"Gluttony," Katelyn asked, "You think I'm fat?" With a flash of her white fiery temper she pulled out her hammer-mace thing and brought it down on his head making it cave in.

"I didn't think it would be that fast." Sean snapped his fingers making the circle appear under Katelyn again. "I guess the red one is next." After snapping his fingers the circle under Kit disappeared. The next seed sprouted into a woman-like plant creature. She wore a very revealing two-piece.

Kit walked up close to her. "Why do we have to fight? After all, I am a lover."

"Oh, chivalry. You're giving me goosebumps." Lust replied. She hugged herself emphasizing her size D breasts. She followed up by pressing herself onto Kit. "Just the king of man I need."

Kit wrapped one of his arms around her. "Must resist urges." He went in for a kiss. As he drew his lips closer to hers he thought, 'SNAP OUT OF IT MAN!' One of her hands melded into a blade behind his back prepared to stab him. He passed her lips and stopped at her ear.

As gently as he could he whispered, "Blizzard." Her eyes widened as she flash froze in place and shattered. Another circle appeared under Kit. "Guys I think these sin plants draw out our inner instincts and use them to distract us or something like that."

"Aaawwww. I thought she would have had you. Luckily I have four more." The rest of the seeds sprouted at once into a fat man barely able to hold himself up (Sloth), a guy who kept rubbing his hands together (Greed), some girl who couldn't bare the sight of the party (Envy), and a very aggressive man with his arms crossed (Wrath). "How about the man in robes now."

Alan's circle disappeared. Scott reassuringly said, "It's Alan this time. They got nothing on him. He's the most disciplined person between us."

Alan looked at wrath a little worried. 'Crap.'

Wrath appeared in front of Alan in a flash. "Boo." He punched Alan sending him through a couple buildings and down a few blocks.

"NO," shouted Bridgette

Sean looked at her and replied, "I think I decided who's up next." Bridgette's circle disappeared next. Sloth slowly walked over to her.

She Kept waving her rod around, trembling in fear, saying, "Fire! Fire! Fire," but she wasn't focused enough to complete the spell.

A voice in her head called out to her, "It is time I joined in." A giant circle appeared under her feet. Fire rose from the edges stopping Sloth from advancing. "Do it. Read the runes ans call my name."

Bridgette say the runes near the edge glow. "Rise from your pit of damnation, Ifrit!" The circle cracked all the way through and Bridgette could feel a burst of energy from within. Finally the circle broke and parts of it flew through the air.

The fire from the edges moved and took the form of the demonic Ifrit. The fire died down revealing his charcoal-ed body. He looked as if he was a cross between a lion and a man with a burning mane (FFX Ifrit).

"Hell Fire!" Bridgette yelled as Ifrit, on all four, opened his mouth charging a ball of flame. The ball reached 5 ft in diameter before shrinking down to the size of a marble launching at Sloth. It hit him causing him to fly toward the other sin plants. As he flew into the center of them the ball inflated 20 ft wide covering them all in flames.

Ifrit disappeared being consumed in flames which slowly died out. Bridgette fell over unconscious from fatigue. Wrath walked out of the flames while the others were burnt to ashes. "It's about time I destroyed you all."

"Leave the unconscious one for me. I have an obligation to keep."

Alan managed to push the rubble off of himself. He heard an explosion in the distance followed by a flash of light. He started running through the path of wreckage from his earlier trip. It took him 20 min to get back. He saw everyone on the ground and blood spots here and there. The first person Alan ran up to was Kit, who was conscious healing himself, and he bent over to talk. "I'm gone for 20 minutes and you guys lose a fight."

"Well after you left Bridgette summoned this demon thing which killed all the plants except the angry one. He then proceeded to hit me. I noticed some things were on the ground that should be under my ribs and had to heal it. Everyone else dropped like flies and the other dude took black face."

Alan felt his entire body shiver after the last sentence. In a calm voice he asked Kit, "Which direction?"

"That way." He pointed and Alan stood up.

"Make sure you heal everyone."

"What about you?" Alan just walked away ignoring what he asked. Kit got up and started walking over toward the others. "I guess it's not my turn yet," he told himself.

"Well if it isn't my personal buffet." Wrath said as he came around a corner blocking Alan's path. "I knew you would attempt to stop Sean, so I decided to stop you and suck your anger right out of you."

"Why did Sean take Bridgette?" Alan continued to walk as he asked.

"It doesn't matter if I tell you. I'm just going to devour your soul anyway." Wrath flashed in front of Alan doing to same punch as before. The smirk on his face soon faded as his fist stopped before making contact. Since Alan still walked forward Wrath felt himself being pushed back. "What the hell?"

He opened his mouth and bit down on the area between Alan's neck and shoulder. His teeth actually sank in and he tried using that to feed on Alan's anger, but he felt nothing coming to him. "Where is it? How did you get rid of it all?"

Alan just mimicked his earlier statement. "It doesn't matter if I tell you. I'm about to destroy you." Wrath drew his teeth out of Alan getting ready to flee. But in the same insane speed he once had Alan punched him leaving a hole in his chest. "Spring's First Breath." A burst of air went roaring through the hole. Wrath dropped to his knees and withered away just like the other plants.

Sean was walking through a cave with Bridgette over shoulder. They passed torch by torch. From Bridgette's shadow approximately where her eyes would be a pair of red glowing eyes followed. These eyes belonged to Ifrit who was keeping tabs on his host. "I can tell you've been watching me."

"Where are you taking us?"

"Back to your kingdom your majesty." Sean replied with a slight chuckle.

"You couldn't possibly open a gate to hell from the human realm without my permission so stop lying."

"I'm not lying and you shouldn't assume that I'm the one opening the gate. I got some people to open it from the inside."

"Even still what do you hope to accomplish?"

"I'm going to drain your power from your host and kill her."

"I don't know who fed you this delusion of possibility but they were wrong."

"Are you gonna stop me because last time I checked you needed permission from your host to come out and play."

"I didn't say I was going to be the one to stop you. In fact he's following your trail right now."

"Nice joke but your doom is certain seeing as I already took care of the other Light Warriors."

"Actually they are all still kicking."

"Impossible. Wrath had more than enough anger to absorb to finish them off."

"True but what if the one who he fed off of replaced his anger with another emotion."

"Stop trying to stall. We're here." They stood before a giant iron door shaped like a box with a half circle on top if it standing 60 ft and 40 ft wide tall with runes written on it's edges and a parallel set of runes going down the middle showing off that it was a double door. There were also chains which had smaller runes written on each link that came from the corners making a cross connected in the middle by a lock that was just one solid circular block with a rune on it.

Sean wrote a rune in the dirt below him and put his hand on it. It began to glow red. "I'm at the door. Open it now." After a couple seconds of waiting all the runes on the doors and chains started to glow red and it opened outward toward Sean's side with the lock split in half and staying at the center of the doors. It only opened enough for Sean to to walk in and closed as soon as he did. "Welcome back to the land of the demons and the damned."

Some demons stood around the entrance. There were dozens of death claws, a couple of imps, a demon wall and a diablo. Sean held up his hand with a small yellow light hovering over it and tossed it to the diablo. "Here's that chocobo soul you wanted."

"A pleasure doing business," He said as he dropped it in his mouth and swallowed it. The demon wall moved in front of the door with his back against it.

Sean walked over to a magic circle with some runes written inside a star in the middle and placed Bridgette in the middle of it. He then walked 5 feet away from the circle turned around with his back to the door and began chanting. The circle began to glow red. Bridgette's shadow outlined itself into the shape of Ifrit. With a furious voice he shouted, "How dare you take a bribe and let this insolent fool into my kingdom."

The diablo looked at the shadow, grew wide eyed, and looked back at Sean. "You didn't tell me you were bringing him back in here." He spread his wings and took off deeper into hell.

Mean while Alan was running through the cave. He finally reached the gate to hell. Standing only two and a half feet away from it he got into a runner's starting pose with his left leg stretched out and his right knee bent with both his hands on the ground. Alan focused his chakra into his arms. "Summers Inescapable Wrath – Rising Temperature." He used the position to give him a short leap forward and as soon as he was in the air barely moving and inch from where he leaped he let out a flurry of punches. He landed 50 blows on the door in a small concentrated spot before catching himself on the ground leaving a dent in the middle of the gate.

Inside hell the monsters heard banging coming from the gate. This was the first time such a noise came from it so they started to stand near it. The demon wall replied to the noise by saying, "Whoever the hell is trying to get through should know that its impossible to open it. Especially since all the gate are reinforced with demon walls."

Alan stretched out his right arm with his fingers fully extended and touched to dent where it was deepest. "Summer's Inescapable Wrath – Heat Wave." He quickly retracted his arm, made a fist, and punched that part of the dent.

The monsters felt and earthquake on their side. The door fell over on their side causing it to knock over the demon wall on top of other monster and crushing them. One of the imps who didn't get too close to the door shouted, "What in the nine layers of hell is happening!"

Alan emerged as the dust settled immediately locking his sights on Sean. What remained of the group of monster looked at Alan. Another imp pointed at him. "It's a human. Tear him to pieces." They all start running at him.

Only focusing on Sean, Alan dashed past all the monsters before they could notice with a powerful gust against his back increasing his speed. Some of the monsters who were too close to him were blown into the air by the force and others just tried to keep their ground. As he approached Sean he brought his arms up further focusing his chakra into his hand. "Fall's Deceiving Decay." Both of his fists collided with Sean's back. Not only were his punches backed up by the force of his dash, his fist were as strong as iron because of the chakra, and some of the chakra went into Sean's body and did some internal damage.

Sean was sent flying into a rock unable to brace himself for it. All the other monsters just looked in shock at what they thought was a mere human. Alan crouched down to examine Bridgette. Bridgette's shadow started to return to normal while the eyes remained. "It's about time you got here. Just don't leave yourself as open as you are now."

Alan picked up the hint picking up Bridgette and turning round. Two giant balls of fire rushed in and collided with Alan's back. He put Bridgette down and faced Sean who already had two more fire balls ready launching them in Alan's direction. Alan did nothing to stop them as they hit his chest.

"That would have killed me if we weren't already in hell." Sean was charging another fire ball. Alan was slowly side stepping so he could keep Bridgette from being in path of Sean's attacks.

"For the sake of getting out of here as soon as possible I'm going to beat you in 4 hits," Alan told Sean.

Sean laughed at that notion. "You think I'm just some weak mage."

"No I'm just saying that I'm stronger than you."

Sean got angry. He held up the fire ball he was charging which was 5 feet in diameter and threw it into the ground. "Hell Storm!" The ground cracked in a cone shape toward Alan. Alan began to run toward Sean when the ground erupted with fire which shot all the way up the the ceiling. The fire kept spewing from the ground for a couple seconds. "So much for being stronger than me."

"Are you sure about that?" Alan emerged from the flames right in front of Sean. Sean was surprised to see Alan, a human, survive flames from hell itself. Alan combo-ed by elbowing Sean's face with his right arm, rotating counter clockwise sweep kicking him with his left leg, and using Sudden Updraft to knee him in the chest to send him flying in the air.

"Winter's Absolute Death." Alan jumped into the air grabbing Sean as they continued up. He arranged Sean upside-down facing away from Alan. Alan crossed Sean's legs with both hands, put his right foot on Sean's chin, and wrapped his left leg around Sean's body. They began to fall, Alan jerked his body, and they spun around as they fell.

All the monsters saw them crash into the ground. Alan was still standing and he walked out of the crater they created. Sean was lying on the ground unable to move. "So much for 'absolute death.' I'm still alive and as long as we're in hell you can't kill me."

"I don't have to kill you. Just incapacitate you so you don't follow us out."Alan picked Bridgette up and began to walk out. The monsters were too scared to even conceive the thought of stopping him. "If I do see you outside of hell, I will kill you."

As Alan reached the other side of the doorway the ground trembled. The gate lifted back up and secured itself back in place. It looked good as new with the addition to a giant glowing red rune on the hell side. The monsters began running around screaming. "We're all dead! WE'RE ALL DEAD!"

Sean was confused. "What are you talking about. We're in hell. Nothing can die here. Even living creatures have immortality."

One monster stopped. "You don't get it do you?"

"Get what?"

"Under normal circumstances that is true, but there are two things in this place that make exceptions to that rule. Ifrit and his officer of order."

"I was never told about this."

"Nobody thought you were going to bring the king himself here. Now that you have, failed to absorb his power, and attracted a being powerful enough to knock down the gate the officer of order is coming here to stop all this chaos by cleaning it up."

The diablo from earlier came flying back. "It was him sire. The one inside the crater." An iron golem emerged from the depths of the tunnel. The other monster freaked out even more crowding against the corner where the door was. The golem approached Sean and brought his left hand down to pin him.

A hunched, short robed figure walked down the golem's arm from his shoulder. Emerging from it's right sleeve was a lamp. It held the lamp up to Sean's head as if to analyze him. It moved it's left arm to reveal a knife and took off it's hood to show it's green head. Sean laughed and said, "You gotta be kidding me. I've slaughtered children taller than this."

The creature looked at the diablo and back. The diablo spoke up, "Silence! You have been judged and found guilty of entering hell without permission, forcibly bringing back his majesty, attempting to drain his power, and causing the destruction of a gate by enraging a being of untold power all on top murdering the innocent you've done throughout your life. You are hereby sentenced to oblivion to be carried out by Lord Tomberry, Officer of Order."

"And how is he going to do that?" Tomberry stabbed Sean in the throat with his knife. Sean could feel his body and soul deteriorating.

"As for the rest of you. Leave now and never talk about what happened here, as are Lord Tomberry's orders." All the monsters left thanking Tomberry for mercy on their way out. The diablo drew close to Tomberry. "Lord Tomberry it is that time again. We need to reinforce all the gates and since the seal is already broken we need to delay her awakening as long as possible so that the Light Warriors can build up their strength. From what I can tell from the traces around this place, they need it."

Alan reached the outside of the cave. Bridgette began to wake up. "What happened?"

"The guy in the over sized clothes took you to hell so I busted in, beat him up, and rescued you. What happened after I was punched and flew away."

"I summoned the king of hell to burn a couple of weed. What about everyone else?"

"If I'm right then everyone should be OK. There is still a 95% chance that Kit will still be hurt but that will be because he said or did something that Katelyn didn't like." They returned to the others and Alan was right about everything.

After resting for the night Scot woke everyone up early. "We need to get going to the next town."

Kit just yawned with a blank look on his face. "Why do we have to get up so early?"

"To get to the next town as soon as possible."

"I can already feel a long and incredibly dangerous adventure for us."

"Now shut up and let's get going."

"Fine..."


	5. Chapter 5

FF: Journey

Ch 5

As the party continued their journey Alan and Chrissie decided to play rock-paper-scissors due to the extreme boredom of walking. "Paper covers rock," Chrissie declared racking up her 43rd victory in a row.

Kit, who was watching them play, said, "You cheat and we all know it."

"How do I cheat?"

"You're the fastest member here with the ability to move faster than we can see. All you have to do is watch his hand right as he decides and you can change your hand right before the results part."

"It is called skill."

"No cheating."

"I call it training," Alan interrupted their argument. "I already know she does it. I'm playing in order to improve my speed and perception."

Birdgette, ignoring the happenings of those three, decided to ask Scott a question. "So what's it like using darkness?"

"Nothing special. It's pretty much just like using my sword. It works just like magic."

"So your able to channel any spell through your sword."

"Yeah but it wouldn't be as powerful."

Katelyn stayed out of the conversations by reading one of the books she brought with her. The conversation with the first three ended with kit pouting while Alan and Chrissie laughing. The other one kept going with Scott and Bridgette just getting to know each other a little better.

The party started to see the small town of Garge off in the distance. As they got closer they noticed a group of villagers crowded together waving in their direction. "Did anybody know about the welcome party?"

Kit began, "Obviously they knew that I, the great red mage Kit Parcey, was coming and they are all here to worship me and pay tribute." Upon finishing that statement Katelyn grabbed her hammer and smacked him over the head with it.

They finally reached the village where an older woman stepped out of the group. "You must be the warriors of light."

Scott responded, "How did you know that?"

"I am Fuko the village chief. Sorry to trouble you but our village magic instructor is sick and today is the day that he was to tell all the children their specialty school of magic so that they can start practicing the use of magic. We sent word to Destiny Academy and they responded that you all were going to come through this town anyway so have you guys do it."

"Who was the one that responded?"

"It was Issui the monk instructor."

Kit looked at Alan. "Next time I see that old man I'm going to beat him to death."

"Come now the children are this way. We will be providing you with hospitality in return."

It was a pretty small town with barely 70 people living in it. The school they were headed off to was to the west about half a mile away from the rest of the village. There were only 19 students and they all seemed to be about 11-13 years old.

When they arrived at the small school house the children where playing around outside it. It was still early in the morning. Since Alan couldn't use magic he decided to just take a nap at under a tree at the edge of the surrounding forest. An hour and a half went by. All the students had their energy read and were informed about what they had and their specialties.

Fuko walked up to them after they read the last child. "Thank you all for your assistance. We just have one small favor to ask before you go."

Chrissie answered, "What is that?"

"We would appreciate if you could also teach the children the basics of magic."

"That's okay with us."

They heard one of the kids cry and when they looked they saw a small black haired, tan wearing a white tang top and yellow being bullied by a handful of others. Fuko, Chrissie, and Katelyn ran over to stop them. The bullies dispersed quickly when they saw the three coming.

Fuko crouched down to talk to him. "What's wrong Timmy? Why were they picking on you?"

"They said I couldn't go to school anymore because I don't have any magic and then they started calling me names and making fun of me." Timmy huffed and puffed his way through the words.

"Oh my! Is this true girls?"

Katelyn replied, "It's true he doesn't have magic. He has chakra instead."

"What are we going to do about this?"

Chrissie took her turn to speak. "Don't worry we got this." She leaned over to the boy. "Timmy do you see that man over there sleeping under the tree?"

"Uh huh."

"Go wake him up and tell him your ready for some training."

"Okay." Timmy got up and started toward Alan.

Fuko looked at Chrissie. "You mean he can use chakra. I just thought he was a lazy bum."

"He's far from that actually. Now let's deal with these other kids."

A cool breeze blew by when Alan woke up. It wasn't the breeze that woke him up but the new presence that stood next to him. "Um... Excuse me mister."

"What can I do for you?"

"I'm supposed to spend today's lessons with you." Alan stared into Timmy's eyes intensely. Timmy grew really nervous. After some time passed Alan just got up and started walking while Timmy followed closely behind. "Shouldn't we stay with everyone else?"

"If I'm going to train you on how to use chakra in one day then we need privacy." After an hour or so of walking Alan finally decided on a spot. "Go ahead and sit down."

"What am I gonna learn first?" Timmy sat down Indian style. Alan quickly turned around and flicked the boy in the head. Timmy's eyes teared up and he was on the verge of crying. "What was that for?"

"It's a secret monk technique which makes it easier for a monk to control his or her chakra. Now that I've done that you're going to learn how to detect your own chakra."

"How do I do that?"

"Just hold your hand in front of your face and stare at it. It'll come to you eventually."

"When will I know that I can detect my own chakra."

"When you see a transparent looking fire on your hand and you start feeling really loose." Alan sat off to Timmy's right and watched him. He saw Timmy's chakra flowing out, but less and less of it flowed out until it stopped. "Can you see it yet?"

"Yeah but how did you know?"

"That is the next step. Once you can you're able to see your own chakra you can see the chakra and magic of others. In order to do that though you have to project your own chakra outward toward that person or object. Now I want you to focus on giving your chakra shape and moving it around."

Timmy continued to stare at his hand concentrating on the task. At first it seemed easy to him but it slowly got harder and harder. "Can you do that finger flick thing again?"

"Nope."

"How come?"

"It only works once on every person."

Timmy pouted and complained. After another 2 hours He finally started getting it down. "What's next?"

"Close your eyes. Take your chakra and thin it out through the area as much as you can. When you have it as far as it can go open your eyes." For Timmy this was a little hard because he was still getting the hang of it. Though he struggled he had done it. He opened his eyes and instead of seeing Alan he saw what seemed like a monster. Timmy got scared and was about to cry. "Timmy don't lose focus keep this up. You have to learn stand up and face the things that scare you. If you can stand up to what you see before yourself now I promise nothing will seem as bad."

Timmy thought about the kids at school who picked on him and Fuko. "I don't want to cry and make everyone worry." He stood up.

"The only thing left for you to do is practice your manipulation. Then I'll teach you a technique."

Back at the school everyone was calling it a day. It was about five o'clock. The kids were tired due to their lack of energy. Fuko and the other villagers were thanking the party for the help and congratulating the kids on how much they learned. Fuko approached Chrissie with a hint of unease, "When will Alan get back with Timmy? The class day was over two hours ago."

"I have no idea. I really don't know anything about monks or even chakra users in general."

Fuko's unease turned became a mixture of anger and concern. "You don't know? How could you let Timmy go out in the wild like that? Your superiors will hear about this."

"Ma'am just calm down. He couldn't be any safer than with Alan."

The ground began to tremble knocking people off their feet. Five large Basilisks mounted by ogres emerged from the nearby forest surrounding the people gathered at the school pointing arrows at them.. More ogres swarmed in after them with one especially fat and muscular, wearing a necklace of randomly assorted bones, and wielding the only broadsword in his left hand.

"We got ourselves some more slaves, boys!" The big one said as the others waved their clubs in the air in excitement.

"It's about time something fun happened." Kit unsheathed his rapier pointing it at one of the mounted ogres. The ogres responded by pulling the the strings on their bows readying to fire.

Scott smacked Kit on the head. "We can't just start a fight with them. We have to protect the villagers."

"You take the fun out of everything." Kit sheathed his sword and slumped over in disappointment.

Katelyn waved her staff around casting a spell. "Protect!" A dome of green energy enveloped the villagers.

The party huddled together in the middle of the crowd. Scott took the initiative, "So does anyone have a plan?" Kit rose his hand. "Except for him."

Fuko approached them. "Do something."

"That's easier said than done." Bridgette responded.

"Why don't you all just fire off some spells?"

"We can't without harming any of the villagers. This barrier only protects from physical attacks. Even if we confronted them with no magic there are too many to of them to hold off with just the five of us," Bridgette explained.

One of the ogres next to the barrier ran off to the big one. "Chief we can't break through this light."

"Let's wait. It'll come down eventually."

"Yes chieftain." The ogre ran around spreading the order.

The party looked around the outside of the barrier. Dusk was quickly upon them as Chrissie, Bridgette, and Scott were trying to come up with their own plans. This was interrupted when they heard Kit shout, "Hey, Alan's back with Timmy." A majority of the villagers and party member looked.

Fuko inspected them the best she could from her position. "Timmy's okay."

Chrissie replied, "See. He couldn't be any safer."

Timmy and Alan also caught the attention of the ogres as they got closer. When they got close to the horde of ogres the chieftain got in their way. He grinned very widely as he spoke, "More slaves for us."

Alan opened his hand signaling Timmy to stop. "Let me ask you something big guy. Do you have a code of honor or do you run around destroying things as you go."

"Are you comparing us to those savages? You could be the first blood my tastes today."

"No. No. I was just wondering if you'd accept a duel for the freedom of these humans."

"Fine. Let's hope you don't die too quickly."

"Not me," Alan said as he pushed Timmy forward. "My pupil Timmy."

Fuko glared at Chrissie with the intensity of a thousand suns. Chrissie just covered her face with her right hand while her left arm bent across her stomach to hold onto her right elbow not believing in Alan's seemingly sheer stupidity.

The chieftain began laughing. "Are you kidding me? Tiny human is shorter than even my sword."

"Well then you should have no problem beating him."

"So all the villagers will go willingly if I crush him?" He inspected Timmy and looked back at Alan. "I have no problem with that. I'll even leave my sword out of it."

Timmy readied himself by getting into the same fighting stance Alan used. The chieftain stabbed his sword into the ground til it was the same height as Timmy. Alan took a couple steps back. "Don't take too long."

The ogre ran toward Timmy with both his arms in the air, fists clenched. He brought his arms down on Timmy. Timmy side stepped to his right. The chieftain lifted his left arm diagonal-right and swung it at the boy. Timmy bent his left knee toward the arm, stretched his right leg away from it, and elbowed it hitting the back of his forearm. The ogre's arm bounced back after the collision. His arm went numb til he shook it off.

The chieftain lifted his left leg and tried to stomp Timmy but Timmy just rolled under it and punched him in the back. The chieftain lost his footing, falling to his right knee. He grew angry turning to his right, swinging his right arm at Timmy. The boy retaliated by jump kicking the ogre in the face. The ogre fell back having very little balance to begin with. He went into a stupor while blood flew out of his mouth.

The chieftain quickly regained consciousness. He stood up furious about the shame he was experiencing. He ran over grabbing his sword and pulling it out. "Men, slaughter them all!" After a few seconds of silence he looked around and saw his people laying on the ground either dead or about to.

"See what happens when your temper gets the better of you. You obsess about what made you angry and can even go back on your word," Alan explained as he and the rest of the party walked over all the bodies.

The chieftain dropped his arms looking around. He blew up with rage turning around ready to charge Timmy. However when he finished turning Timmy was already in his face launching a punch. "Spring's First Dance." As soon as his blow connected the chieftain felt as if all his insides burst. No one could see it but Alan and Timmy knew that the ogre's insides had shut down due to the trauma the attack caused. His now lifeless body fell over crashing into the ground.

The villagers crowded the party thanking them for what they did. Fuko ran up and hugged Timmy. She then turned and slapped Alan across the face. Alan just said, "Glad to see everyone is okay."

"How could you just throw a little boy into a fight like that."

"Because I had faith in him."

Timmy butted in, "Ms. Fuko I asked him to let me fight."

"Timmy I don't wanna..." she was caught off guard from what he said. "You volunteered to fight the ogre?"

"Yeah," Timmy said as if it was nothing.

Fuko looked back at Alan. "Thank you for everything."

"Your welcome. There should be someone here in about a week to pick up Timmy."

"Pick up Timmy? Why?"

"Well, I was told that the original teacher used magic. So I am going to send a message to my old dojo requesting that they teach him until he is able to go to Destiny Academy."

Katelyn walked over to Alan. "I finished checking over everyone. We're all pretty tired so we think it's time to get some rest."

Fuko smiled. "Well the villagers will show you to the INN."

"Thank you for your hospitality." Alan bowed as a show of respect.

Timmy bowed too. "I hope to see you again."

"Make sure you don't tell them about that punch. I'll be in big trouble if they find out."

"I promise."

"Now let's go." Alan turned and walked toward the party with Katelyn following shortly behind him.

When they caught up with everyone else Kit just shouted, "What the hell did you teach that kid! Is there something we should know about you."

"It's not really that important." Alan just kept walking while Kit walked backwards staring at him.

Bridgette, who was to the right of Alan, put her hand on his shoulder. "After spending a day with you that kid was able to defeat an over grown ogre. That alone makes it qualify for the important category."

Alan looked into her eyes and saw a little concern. "Fine. My family has been filled with nothing but pure chakra users for centuries. A long time ago back when my family was a part of a larger clan, a powerful being showed up and passed down the secrets of wielding chakra to the head of the clan. In return the head and the families gave this being housing and protection. After looking over these secrets the head decided to split it between the families."

Scott interrupted, "You mean to tell us that you are from one of those crazy pure chakra families. Which one?"

"The Vaines."

"How come none of us figured this out sooner."

"Chrissie already knew that and none of you guys ever asked my last name so it never came up."

Kit also joined the exchange. "So that's the part you would have told us. Now let's get to the part you should be telling us."

Alan continued, "After each one of the families learned their secret they set up a bunch of rules about how these techniques would be passed down so that one family couldn't become more powerful than another. Everything was all good until a couple years ago. One of the families was being terrorized by a demon dragon. A non successor approached the current head in private asking for all the secrets of chakra. The head agreed to teach them to him as long as a non successor from the other families was also taught them. He did this because he didn't want to see neither the family wiped out nor a shift in the power balance. He ended up picking me for my family."

"After several years of training the four of us each mastered the secrets. However this was done in private so no one else from any of our families knows about it. Since I'm not the successor for my family I shouldn't know my own family technique let alone teaching some random kid a technique from another family."

Kit just commented after hearing everything, "Anyone else have any secrets? I'm thinking now would be a good time to put them on the table. I'm pretty sure we won't top his though."

"I'm engaged to be married in the next couple months," Bridgette spoke up. Everyone wide eyed her. Alan also jaw dropped.

Kit looked back and forth between the two. "Looks like I was wrong."

The rest of the walk back was filled with awkward silence. Eventually everyone just kinda ignored it. Alan though couldn't just ignore it. He didn't speak to anybody and spent his time pondering about Bridgette and his relationship and whether or not it would last. Bridgette felt down every time she looked at Alan.

The next morning the party left the village continuing down the list of places. It wasn't til about noon that Bridgette finally spoke to Alan, "I'm sorry for not telling you about it."

"It's okay I'm sure your reason was good."

"I didn't want it to affect any relationships I would have. Let's be honest. Would you have asked me to the dance if you knew about it."

"No I wouldn't."

"I just wanted to explore my feelings and give things a chance before giving up hope about my future."

"Does this mean we're still together."

"As far as I know." She approached him and they hugged and kissed. "I want this to last as long as possible."

"So do I." Everyone else stayed out of this and left them alone for the rest of the day. Kit tried several times to mess with them but was stopped by Chrissie every time he came up with something.

For now their journey was as normal as usual to them. They didn't know that their next stop was Ju-Gang, Bridgette's home.


End file.
